4
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
1 collections
    0
    shares
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: not found

      Confirmation of SARS-CoV-2 airborne dissemination indoors using “COVID-19 traps”

      research-article

      Read this article at

      ScienceOpenPublisherPMC
      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          Understanding the capacity of SARS-CoV-2 virus to infect by surfaces and by airborne dissemination has become in one of the most important issues in the world nowadays. Thus, the aim of this study was to confirm aerosol dissemination from patients with coronavirus infection using “COVID-19 traps” that included different untouched surfaces within them. In a previous study, we evaluated the presence of the virus and its stability in 6 different surfaces placed in the rooms of 6 patients with a positive diagnostic of COVID-19. For that, we performed a case series study with 180 samples collected from the surfaces included into the “COVID-19 traps” located in the rooms of patients in a COVID-19 ward unit (CWU) at a Spanish referral hospital at 24, 48 and 72 hours. RNA was extracted from the surfaces with a swab and subsequently analyzed with RT-PCR to evaluate the presence of the virus and its stability. Positives were found in almost all the rooms and at all analyzed times. Surfaces could not be touched by patients or health workers, so viral spreading was unequivocally produced by airborne. In addition, ROC curves were performed to corroborate that airborne dissemination was directly associated with patients’ viral load. Thus, aerosol dissemination and patients’ viral load were confirmed as key parameters for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Our results point the importance of SARS-CoV-2 virus airborne dissemination indoors and may shed some light in this debate.

          Graphical Abstract

          Related collections

          Most cited references24

          • Record: found
          • Abstract: found
          • Article: not found

          Aerosol and Surface Stability of SARS-CoV-2 as Compared with SARS-CoV-1

          To the Editor: A novel human coronavirus that is now named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (formerly called HCoV-19) emerged in Wuhan, China, in late 2019 and is now causing a pandemic. 1 We analyzed the aerosol and surface stability of SARS-CoV-2 and compared it with SARS-CoV-1, the most closely related human coronavirus. 2 We evaluated the stability of SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV-1 in aerosols and on various surfaces and estimated their decay rates using a Bayesian regression model (see the Methods section in the Supplementary Appendix, available with the full text of this letter at NEJM.org). SARS-CoV-2 nCoV-WA1-2020 (MN985325.1) and SARS-CoV-1 Tor2 (AY274119.3) were the strains used. Aerosols (<5 μm) containing SARS-CoV-2 (105.25 50% tissue-culture infectious dose [TCID50] per milliliter) or SARS-CoV-1 (106.75-7.00 TCID50 per milliliter) were generated with the use of a three-jet Collison nebulizer and fed into a Goldberg drum to create an aerosolized environment. The inoculum resulted in cycle-threshold values between 20 and 22, similar to those observed in samples obtained from the upper and lower respiratory tract in humans. Our data consisted of 10 experimental conditions involving two viruses (SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV-1) in five environmental conditions (aerosols, plastic, stainless steel, copper, and cardboard). All experimental measurements are reported as means across three replicates. SARS-CoV-2 remained viable in aerosols throughout the duration of our experiment (3 hours), with a reduction in infectious titer from 103.5 to 102.7 TCID50 per liter of air. This reduction was similar to that observed with SARS-CoV-1, from 104.3 to 103.5 TCID50 per milliliter (Figure 1A). SARS-CoV-2 was more stable on plastic and stainless steel than on copper and cardboard, and viable virus was detected up to 72 hours after application to these surfaces (Figure 1A), although the virus titer was greatly reduced (from 103.7 to 100.6 TCID50 per milliliter of medium after 72 hours on plastic and from 103.7 to 100.6 TCID50 per milliliter after 48 hours on stainless steel). The stability kinetics of SARS-CoV-1 were similar (from 103.4 to 100.7 TCID50 per milliliter after 72 hours on plastic and from 103.6 to 100.6 TCID50 per milliliter after 48 hours on stainless steel). On copper, no viable SARS-CoV-2 was measured after 4 hours and no viable SARS-CoV-1 was measured after 8 hours. On cardboard, no viable SARS-CoV-2 was measured after 24 hours and no viable SARS-CoV-1 was measured after 8 hours (Figure 1A). Both viruses had an exponential decay in virus titer across all experimental conditions, as indicated by a linear decrease in the log10TCID50 per liter of air or milliliter of medium over time (Figure 1B). The half-lives of SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV-1 were similar in aerosols, with median estimates of approximately 1.1 to 1.2 hours and 95% credible intervals of 0.64 to 2.64 for SARS-CoV-2 and 0.78 to 2.43 for SARS-CoV-1 (Figure 1C, and Table S1 in the Supplementary Appendix). The half-lives of the two viruses were also similar on copper. On cardboard, the half-life of SARS-CoV-2 was longer than that of SARS-CoV-1. The longest viability of both viruses was on stainless steel and plastic; the estimated median half-life of SARS-CoV-2 was approximately 5.6 hours on stainless steel and 6.8 hours on plastic (Figure 1C). Estimated differences in the half-lives of the two viruses were small except for those on cardboard (Figure 1C). Individual replicate data were noticeably “noisier” (i.e., there was more variation in the experiment, resulting in a larger standard error) for cardboard than for other surfaces (Fig. S1 through S5), so we advise caution in interpreting this result. We found that the stability of SARS-CoV-2 was similar to that of SARS-CoV-1 under the experimental circumstances tested. This indicates that differences in the epidemiologic characteristics of these viruses probably arise from other factors, including high viral loads in the upper respiratory tract and the potential for persons infected with SARS-CoV-2 to shed and transmit the virus while asymptomatic. 3,4 Our results indicate that aerosol and fomite transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is plausible, since the virus can remain viable and infectious in aerosols for hours and on surfaces up to days (depending on the inoculum shed). These findings echo those with SARS-CoV-1, in which these forms of transmission were associated with nosocomial spread and super-spreading events, 5 and they provide information for pandemic mitigation efforts.
            Bookmark
            • Record: found
            • Abstract: found
            • Article: not found

            Persistence of coronaviruses on inanimate surfaces and their inactivation with biocidal agents

            Summary Currently, the emergence of a novel human coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, has become a global health concern causing severe respiratory tract infections in humans. Human-to-human transmissions have been described with incubation times between 2-10 days, facilitating its spread via droplets, contaminated hands or surfaces. We therefore reviewed the literature on all available information about the persistence of human and veterinary coronaviruses on inanimate surfaces as well as inactivation strategies with biocidal agents used for chemical disinfection, e.g. in healthcare facilities. The analysis of 22 studies reveals that human coronaviruses such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) coronavirus, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus or endemic human coronaviruses (HCoV) can persist on inanimate surfaces like metal, glass or plastic for up to 9 days, but can be efficiently inactivated by surface disinfection procedures with 62–71% ethanol, 0.5% hydrogen peroxide or 0.1% sodium hypochlorite within 1 minute. Other biocidal agents such as 0.05–0.2% benzalkonium chloride or 0.02% chlorhexidine digluconate are less effective. As no specific therapies are available for SARS-CoV-2, early containment and prevention of further spread will be crucial to stop the ongoing outbreak and to control this novel infectious thread.
              Bookmark
              • Record: found
              • Abstract: found
              • Article: found

              Air, Surface Environmental, and Personal Protective Equipment Contamination by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) From a Symptomatic Patient

              This study documents results of SARS-CoV-2 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing of environmental surfaces and personal protective equipment surrounding 3 COVID-19 patients in isolation rooms in a Singapore hospital.
                Bookmark

                Author and article information

                Journal
                J Infect
                J Infect
                The Journal of Infection
                The British Infection Association. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
                0163-4453
                1532-2742
                22 December 2021
                22 December 2021
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Proteomic Unit, Instituto Murciano de Investigaciones Biosanitarias (IMIB-Arrixaca), Murcia, Spain
                [2 ]Department of Surgery, Hospital Clínico Universitario Virgen de la Arrixaca (HCUVA), Murcia, Spain
                [3 ]Department of Virology, HCUVA, Murcia, Spain
                [4 ]Environment and Human Health (EH2) Lab IMIB-Arrixaca, Pediatric Environmental Health, HCUVA, Murcia, Spain
                [5 ]Department of Preventive Medicine, HCUVA, Murcia, Spain
                [6 ]Department of Infectious Diseases, HCUVA, Murcia, Spain
                Author notes
                [* ]Address for corresponding: Dr. Esteban Orenes-Piñero, PhD. Proteomic Unit, Instituto Murciano de Investigaciones Biosanitarias (IMIB-Arrixaca), Campus Ciencias de la Salud. Carretera Buenavista s/n, CP 30120, El Palmar, Murcia, Spain, Phone: 0034-868-885243
                Article
                S0163-4453(21)00630-7
                10.1016/j.jinf.2021.12.017
                8694655
                eb5c50f8-1807-4150-bb5c-f6a8e81e9a59
                © 2021 The British Infection Association. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

                Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active.

                History
                : 15 December 2021
                Categories
                Article

                Infectious disease & Microbiology
                sars-cov-2,aerosol dissemination,untouched surfaces, rt-pcr, covid-19 traps

                Comments

                Comment on this article